Kale?

The local farmer's market has been getting some great kale. However, I don't know of many good recipes for kale. Can anyone suggest anything? So far I've just been steaming/blanching it with any combination of balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, and olive oil. Can kale be substituted for cabbage effectively?

Specifically, I'd prefer recipes with kale as the primary ingredient to be served as a side dish (as opposed to something like minestrone soup). I have lots of frozen leftovers to be eaten, so I'd like the kale to be a side dish to an already-cooked meal. I have no dietary restrictions, so the sky's the limit! (I also enjoy recipes designed for certain dietary restrictions, so please don't let that be a deterrent either ^_^)

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I cooked kale for my bento all last week, and this is basically what I did. I loved it, and it made a surprisingly good bento staple for me. The below is posted from my personal blog, so it's a little irreverent and written for people who know me. :) It's simple and lovely.

Need:
Some tofu (1/3 block to 1/2 block if starving) extra-firm nonsilken tofu
One beautiful red bell pepper, sliced into rounds
One bunch kale leaves, washed and drained well
Three big cloves garlic (chopped), less if sharing air with someone you like, more if you have the whole bed to yourself
teaspoon or so red pepper flakes
olive oil
sea salt
freshly-ground black pepper
One lemon

Slice tofu into whatever size pieces you like best - I left it in slices about one inch by three inches by 1/2 inch or so. Fold into clean kitchen towel and stack a few cookbooks/physics books on top. The tofu will absorb the knowledge of the books stacked on top of it, so choose wisely. I do not recommend Sun Tzu - no one likes to be outmaneuvered by processed soybeans. It's embarrassing, and the pets will point and laugh. Ignore for twenty minutes or so.

Heat cast iron skillet. When skillet is hot, add a little oil and let that heat over medium-high flame. When hot, lay bell pepper rounds flat on the bottom, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and liberally with black pepper. Flip once or twice, cook until warm but not soft. Remove from pan and add a smidge more oil (how much is up to you, but tofu will absorb it like whoa if the oil isn't hot enough), and add garlic and red pepper flakes. When oil is nice and hot, grab the smartened-up tofu and lay it in the pan, pressing it down into the garlic, and cooking until golden brown on each side. Remove tofu and garlic from pan and set aside. Wrestle kale into the pan (it will try to jump out), saute lightly, until leaves are bright green, soft, but not anything like the canned mushy, nasty green nonsense they tried to feed you in grade school. Adjust salt to suit you. Put the kale on a plate, put tofu, garlic, and bell pepper on top, squeeze lemon juice to taste over the whole shebang. Devour. Goes well with a white wine spritzer while sitting on the back porch steps fending off the dog.

If you look through raw food websites you can probably find tons of kale side dishes - the best tip I found from raw food is to let dressing sit on your kale for a while so that it can tenderize the leaves!

Good luck! And if you try something delish make sure you come back to let us know!!! Maybe you can help me love kale! ;-)

Thank you for the great ideas! Erisgrrrl, I'll let you know if I find something wonderful. I've never been a big kale eater, but the produce at the market was so lovely that I just had to get some. The farmer even went through the trouble of carefully cleaning the leaves after a muddy rain and tying the bundles together in pretty fan shapes.